A view of Forward Operating Base Marez, in Mosul, home to the 3rd Armored cavalry Regiment, 1-8 of 4th Infantry Battalion, and the various Military Transition Teams including 172. While doing this watercolor I was spotted by an MP and hauled in to account for myself. After a brief explanation I was returned to the spot and allowed to finish it!

Steve Mumford originally went to Baghdad in 2003 to work as a war artist, embedded with the U.S. military, both writing a journal and making drawings and watercolors of what he saw there. He has been back several times; the text that follows is a report from his current visit. The archive for Mumford’s original "Baghdad Journal" can be found here.